RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia
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@MiketheSnow said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
Discarded / surplus to requirements for a lot of those players tbf
Fifita had multiple chances.
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@booboo said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
Unpopular opinion:
Dane Coles is our best hooker right now. Discuss.
Samisoni's throwing was noticeably more accurate than Coles in this game: Coles had his targets catching the ball at head height, rather than stretching high for them - against a better side some of them would probably be picked off. And we lack power which he has, so in this pack he is easily the best hooker, despite Foster mucking him around for 1.5 years waiting for Taylor to come right.
Coles is still a very mobile hooker, and does seem likely to be the first forward to tell the backs to stop kicking the fucking thing away though - which would arguably be more important than any actual physical contribution. -
@Victor-Meldrew said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@booboo said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
Unpopular opinion:
Dane Coles is our best hooker right now. Discuss.
Think the CT/ST split works well but Coles has looked sharp and up for it. Good to have some competition for the slot.
As an aside, Sami T seems to have gone backwards in the last year. Was outstanding at lineout throwing but has had wobbles recently and does he look just a bit less mobile than last year?
Yeah, seems to be lacking the power he had, and his throwing is more of a lottery.
I'm serious about Coles.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@mariner4life said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
I have been one of the bigger ALB fans on this board, but he's evolved in to Aaron Mauger, good in theory, not in practice
He looks cooked doesn't he?
more cooked than Goodhue
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@akan004 said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@ploughboy said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@booboo said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
Unpopular opinion:
Dane Coles is our best hooker right now. Discuss.
i was thinking during the game that was a impressive shift. if only we had that depth in all postions
I saw this on twitter. It's scary when you see all the names listed down. We have so much top class talent playing overseas.
Wondering if that's all.
Taniela Topou was from Auckland wasn't he?
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@booboo said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@akan004 said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@ploughboy said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@booboo said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
Unpopular opinion:
Dane Coles is our best hooker right now. Discuss.
i was thinking during the game that was a impressive shift. if only we had that depth in all postions
I saw this on twitter. It's scary when you see all the names listed down. We have so much top class talent playing overseas.
Wondering if that's all.
Taniela Topou was from Auckland wasn't he?
Went to Sacred Heart College but born in
MidgardTonga. -
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Been reported that Luke Pearce and a couple of players were almost physically sick when they saw the injury, it was that bad.
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@MiketheSnow said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@mikedogz said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
Broken leg and dislocated ankle
Poor bastard
Been there done that. 0 stars don't recommend.
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@frugby said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@Yeahtheboys said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
If Aaron smith wasn’t called Aaron smith and his rugby skills were inserted onto another body (not called Aaron smith) for the last year.
Would Roigard start over that player
Nope. Smith brings unrivalled speed and accuracy of pass, which the All Blacks main gameplan is built around.
One could argue that gameplan has shown to have a few flaws and that we need some variation from halfback….
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A good lawyer can make that tackle technique view inadmissible.
His left arm wrapped and his right arm couldn’t, due to tackled player being tackled by another AB, meaning he was falling far quicker into poor unsuspecting Ethan De Groot which meant he couldn’t wrap his right arm in time.
Justice for De Groot!!
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@ACT-Crusader said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@frugby said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@Yeahtheboys said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
If Aaron smith wasn’t called Aaron smith and his rugby skills were inserted onto another body (not called Aaron smith) for the last year.
Would Roigard start over that player
Nope. Smith brings unrivalled speed and accuracy of pass, which the All Blacks main gameplan is built around.
One could argue that gameplan has shown to have a few flaws and that we need some variation from halfback….
As ever, when our forwards act like AB forwards and win clean quick ball, the gameplan looks great.
Unfortunately we can’t rely on our forwards to do that against the top sides.
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@DaGrubster said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@ACT-Crusader said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@frugby said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@Yeahtheboys said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
If Aaron smith wasn’t called Aaron smith and his rugby skills were inserted onto another body (not called Aaron smith) for the last year.
Would Roigard start over that player
Nope. Smith brings unrivalled speed and accuracy of pass, which the All Blacks main gameplan is built around.
One could argue that gameplan has shown to have a few flaws and that we need some variation from halfback….
As ever, when our forwards act like AB forwards and win clean quick ball, the gameplan looks great.
Unfortunately we can’t rely on our forwards to do that against the top sides.
I feeling a little uneasy with Sam W's game at moment, he looking a little tired or something. Might be my imagination. But we certainly missing some grunt on the cart etc anyway, to be honest apart from Frizzel at times, I don't recall really seeing to much hard close in carrying from a loosie in NZ for quite sometime at any level. And I will add in Papali'i we don't have a 7 that makes hard tackles that seems to get teams going forward?
I was and still am quite keen on Ryan as forwards coach, but had hoped he would maybe have got them playing a bit more physical?
Just random thoughts while watching Ireland/Tonga. -
@Dan54 I agree. You have to think how much does a WC in 2023 mean for some of these older guys, who have already been there and won a WC. Mentioned in the ABs v France thread how both locks look spent, but who the hell would we replace either of them with?
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@Jailbreak7 some of the ones we have developed the past 5 years knowing they would be in the twilight of their careers, like we did with Smith...
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@Jailbreak7 I actually thought when watching French game, Sam W reminded me a little of how he looked at 2019 WC, where he looked tired or something.
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@Jailbreak7 said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@Dan54 I agree. You have to think how much does a WC in 2023 mean for some of these older guys, who have already been there and won a WC. Mentioned in the ABs v France thread how both locks look spent, but who the hell would we replace either of them with?
I think the real question is what has happened to the forwards since the first two games of this years RC?
Either Cane and Frizzell are absolutely key to success or something has gone badly wrong in tactics, training or attitude in the last 3-4 games.
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We had half of our starting pack unavailable for that french match.
Frizzel, Lomax, Cane and BBBR. And we then played Vaai at 6.
But I agree with your point - what has changed from 2 months ago?
Maybe the teams we played were underdone but I can’t see how we were so far ahead of them as we had only been together for 10 or so days before playing Argentina.
Maybe we have repeated our ‘99 year where after a bad year previously, we had to prove a point straight away against teams that were building for the World Cup and we played our best rugby before the RWC started?
Maybe this squad isn’t drilled hard enough and it shows through the lack of discipline and lack of consistency?
We can speculate all we like but the fact is this side is capable of playing great rugby but it feels as though they will die wondering in this World cup
